By
the arrival of the Columbia we
have Havana papers to the 11th inst. The British steamer Ossian
arrived at Havana on the 9th, bringing Vera Cruz dates to the 3d inst.
We translate from Diario the
following letter from Vera Cruz, dated 3d inst.:

The
French forces are distributed as follows: In the district comprising San
Augustin del Palmar, San Andreas de Chalchicomula and Orizaba, from 7000
to 8000 men. In Perote and Las Vigas, 8000, independent of about 1000
commanded by Marques, which are encamped in the neighborhood of the
latter place. The forces which occupied Tlacotalpan and Alvarado have
been removed from there.

The
remnant of the 28,000 men, composing the expeditionary corps, is
employed in conveying trains, guarding posts, hospitals and stores. By
the steamer which left in December, reinforcements were called for, and
they are expected to arrive at Vera Cruz by the 1st of February, by
which time the railroad to Orizaba, now in course of completion, will be
ready to transport the troops into the interior. The reinforcements will
consist of two divisions of the Imperial Guard. It is calculated that
they will compose the effective force of 15,000, which are destined for
the attack on Puebla.

The
Mexican forces are distributed as follows: at Puebla 25,000 regulars and
10,000 volunteers. Between that city and Mexico, there are two
divisions, destined to cover a retreat from, or to reinforce Puebla, as
the case may be; they form a body of 12,000 men. The city of Mexico is
defended by 12,000 men and Queretaro by 8000; with 14,000 men in the
State of Guerrero as a reserve, commanded by Alvarez. The Mexicans,
although more numerous than the French, still labor under great
disadvantages. The scarcity of provisions to supply their vast numbers
seems to be their greatest misfortune. Puebla is defended by ten
bastions, mounting, in all, 200 guns. The capital is fortified in the
same manner.

Most
of the French artillery is between Jalapa and Las Vigas.

The
authorities in Vera Cruz have established a lazaretto, in consequence of
the appearance of the small-pox.

——-

Cricket.—The
cricket match between the New Orleans Eleven and the Rinalde Eleven,
previously noticed, resulted in a tie. The third game, played during the
present week, was won by the New Orleans Eleven with three wickets to go
down.

——-

Mutilation.—Two
men got into a fight yesterday on Julia street, one being named McClosky
and the other Kane. During the progress of the contest they got into
extremely close quarters, when Kane’s nether lip was entirely bitten
off by his opponent. Kane went to the Charity Hospital, carrying his lip
in his hand. He did not wish to have McClosky arrested.

——-

Investing
in Confederate Bonds.—The Richmond Enquirer
says:

An
English gentleman, now in this country on a collecting tour for one of
the largest English hardware establishments, of which he is a partner,
has collected upwards of a million dollars in Confederate 8 per cent
bonds at par, which he says will now sell readily in England at 75 or 80
cents on the dollar, and eh day the Confederacy is recognized as a
nation, they will go up to 125 or 150. Many large houses, he says, have
hundreds of thousands of dollars of these bonds, and consider them a
splendid investment.

The
Rear of Banks’ Expedition.—We learn that the men assigned
to Banks’ expedition still waiting the transports fitting out at this
city, are becoming quite restless under their long detention. Many of
them are nine months men, and when it is considered that three months of
their enlistment have passed away already, and that even should they
sail at once another month might be consumed in reaching their
destination, (the supply of steamers being inadequate), it is not
surprising that they should begin to feel dispirited, and some of them
go into the hospital for treatment.—N.Y.
Journal of Commerce, 5th inst.

——-

The
Army of the Potomac—Winter
Operations.—The Army correspondent of the Baltimore American,
in a late letter from Falmouth, writes:

The
Army of the Potomac is not going into winter quarters. Though operations
in front may be abandoned, the troops are not to remain cooped up in
winter huts through the long weeks which intervene between now and
March. A portion of the soldiers may be sent to Washington to prevent a
backward movement of the enemy in that direction, while the remainder
are shipped southward, to commence operations anew on the Peninsula.
Perhaps it may appear best to our Generals to cross the Rappahannock
further down—say Port Conway—under the protection of our gunboats,
and again give battle to the enemy. Should we desire to do so, it would
be as a General remarked to me to-day, almost impossible to winter this
army in this locality, owing to the scarcity of wood. The circuit of
country now occupied by us, in addition of being limited, and producing
a stunted growth of timber, has been pretty effectually invaded by rebel
wood choppers, who have heretofore congregated in this vicinity. Owing
to the sandy formation of the soil, the roads soon dry up after the
heaviest storms, so that the elements, however unfavorable they may be,
will hardly prevent our locomotion.

——-

Terrible
Havoc.—The army correspondent of the New York Tribune
says:

Of
course, as the events of the terrible battle of Fredericksburg are
canvassed, hundreds of instances come to light of individual gallantry,
daring and coolness. Col. Burns’ regiment of the Irish brigade went
into the fight with about 700 men, and came out with 150. One after
another the standard bearers were shot down until twenty men had been
killed at the duty, and the colors were torn to rags by the storm of
fire through which they were so gallantly borne. Seven different times
did the Colonel himself seize the colors from the ground, and hand them
to the nearest man. And at the last, after even all this, the colors
were lost, after 500 men had fallen in their defence. After the battle,
it is said the Colonel sat down and wept bitter tears.

MONDAYJANUARY 19,
1863THE
DAILY RICHMOND EXAMINER (VA)

The Situation in Tennessee.

There
is a lull of battle in Tennessee since the great fight at Murfreesboro.
Neither army seems to be in a condition to renew the conflict. Our
latest Tennessee paper—the Chattanooga Rebel
of last Tuesday—says of the situation:

The
Yankees are as dumb as door-posts. The troops which fought the great
battle are fearfully cut up, and intelligent parties from the front
state that Rosencrans cannot advance for some weeks to come. On Sunday
morning our cavalry dashed down the Manchester and Shelbyville pike
towards Murfreesboro. They found a party of the enemy on picket duty at
Stone’s river bridge, two miles this side on the latter road, and at
the first toll-gate on the former. As they approached the enemy fired
and fell back rapidly, leaving several “tokens” of our volley behind
them. The party of reconnoissance then withdrew.

Colonel
Richardson, with his regiment of Partisan Rangers, dashed into Memphis
on the 25th ultimo, pulled down the Lincoln flag, and placed the
Confederate flag in its stead, drove out three hundred head of cattle,
captured several prisoners, and protected the streets so as to enable
the citizens to take out an immense quantity of salt and other articles.
The Lincoln forces, which amounted to two regiments, immediately ran to
their fortifications, leaving the heart of the city almost entirely
unprotected, enabling our little squad to do as they pleased.

Jeff
Thompson is at Madrid Bend; that place, Island No. 10, and Hickman, have
been evacuated by the Lincolnites, and our cavalry forces are doing good
service at these points.

Captain
Reynolds of the 21st Mississippi Regiment, who lives near Memphis, and
has been there for the last five or six weeks, asserts the above to be
substantially true.

Captain
Reynolds also informs us that Colonel Blythe, of another partisan
regiment, was in the neighborhood of Coldwater Depot—that he had
informed General Grant that he had twenty prisoners whom he would hold
as hostages, and in the future he would burn one prisoner for every
house that was burned by his men in Memphis. Since that correspondence
was had no houses have been burned in the city.

——-

A
Battle Imminent.—Judging from the crowd of officers around
the hotels and on the public streets, a battle is to come off soon. We
don’t know whether it will be in the East or in the West, but we
cannot overlook the grand sign of a fight somewhere, by the rushing of
officers to Richmond. They fill our hotels just now like bees at
swarming time, and can be met with on all the thoroughfares. There is a
fight imminent somewhere.

——-

Catching
Conscripts.—At each gate of the Capitol Square a conscript
hopper is fixed, into which falls every subject of the act. God looks,
and good clothing, and the absence of every thing militaire,
will not save the passerby, and the demand for “papers” was never so
imperative as at present. The enforcement of the conscript law to its
letter would rid this community of the dregs that infest society in
Richmond, and add to the public service.

The
Virginia Legislature.A
Monument to Virginia Women.

Mr.
Whittle, of Pittsylvania, introduced a joint resolution
eulogistic of the women of this revolution, and especially the women of
Virginia, her devotion, sacrifices and heroism, and recommending the
preservation by documentary evidence, instances of the barbarity of our
foe, and at the close of the war, a monument to be erected, perpetuating
to coming ages her unexampled virtues displayed in communion with the
men of the times.

Mr.
Thompson, of Dinwiddie, in a few remarks, endorsed all contained
in the resolution, and moved that the rules be suspended to put the
resolution upon its passage, which being done, the resolution was
unanimously adopted.

——-

From
Our Army in the West.

Tullahoma,
January 16.—It appears from the enemy’s accounts of the
battle of Murfreesboro that Breckenridge’s division, of General
Hardee’s corps, in the action of the 2d, encountered, in addition to
the force immediately assailed, the force of the enemy’s batteries
massed in numbers of one hundred guns, also the greater part of their
infantry massed at the same point. The assault was made under positive
orders, and, whether issued wisely or not, was bravely executed. The
position was carried in the very jaws of the appalling fire of the
enemy, and was held for half an hour before General Breckenridge was
forced to fall back in the face of overpowering numbers.

The
enemy occupies his original position before Murfreesboro, and is
reported to be about forty thousand strong. They are repairing the
roads, but making no preparations for an advance. They were reported as
suffering from the scarcity of provisions.

It
is bitter cold here and a snow storm prevails. But under all this the
spirit of our army is not dampened.

——-

“I’m
an Officer.”—While
the enrolling agent is engaged in catching the poor conscript, we beg of
him not to overlook the fine officer, who with three bars or stars on
his collar, puts aside the bayonet of the guard with “I’m an
officer,” and passes on. There is at least a regiment of them in
Richmond at this time.

——-

The
Enemy Preparing to Cross the River.—Fredericksburg,
January 18.—The demonstrations of the enemy on their right and
left wings, as well as in their center, indicate that an early attempt
will be made to cross the river simultaneously above and below the town.
An attack may be expected, it is believed, at any time.

TUESDAYJANUARY 20 1863LOWELL
DAILY CITIZEN & NEWS (MA)

State
Almshouse.—We are indebted to Thomas J. Marsh, Esq.,
superintendent of the State Almshouse at Tewksbury, for the ninth annual
report of the Inspectors, embracing a full exhibit of the working of the
institution for the year ending Sept. 30, 1862. The inspectors refer in
terms of high commendation to the general management of the institution,
and the reports of the superintendent and his associates certainly
exhibit evidence of wisdom, efficiency and economy in the conduct of
affairs, both internally and externally. The whole number supported
during the year has been 2920, and the weekly average, 913—the largest
ever known—and of this number only 132 have died, being 87 less than
the previous year. The number in the almshouse at the commencement of
the year was 974; admitted during the year, 1946; discharged, 2144;
supported, 2920; births, 57; died, 132; number of children who had been
provided with homes, 88; weekly average, 913; present number, 776.
Notwithstanding the average weekly number in the house was larger than
in the preceding year, there has been a handsome reduction, both in the
cost of support and in the current expenses. This saving is in part
owing to the increased productiveness of the farm, which now contributes
largely toward the support of the almshouse,

Rev.
J. M. Burtt continues as chaplain of the institution, and Dr. Brown
presides over the hospital department, as he has done from the
beginning. The policy of putting out children, many of whom are orphans,
to suitable persons as they attain sufficient age, has been continued,
and in this way good and permanent homes have been provided, where they
will be trained to useful pursuits.

Massachusetts
has two state almshouses besides that at Tewksbury: one at Monson, the
other in Bridgewater. They are all conducted upon the same system.

The
Governor, in his address, observes that the number of persons supported
in the state almshouses and Rainsford Island Hospital was less in 1862
than it was in any but one of the last five years, and was 17½ per cent
less than it was in 1861. Another interesting fact is that the expense
of these institutions was less in 1862 than in any year but one since
they were opened, being $122, 783, which is $12,220 less than their
expenses in 1861.

——-

Several
small boys in Clinton, Ill., from eight to fourteen years of age, have
organized a company to cut and split wood for the wives and families of
volunteers. They parade the street with fife and drum, visiting and
working for needy widows, one-half of them working while the other half
rest, until an ample supply of wood is ready for the stove.

——-

The
Massachusetts Indians.—The
remaining Indians, few and feeble, remind us of their existence every
year by the reports of their guardians to the governor of the state.
There were paid last year to and in behalf of the Mashpee Indians $1458;
to Chippequiddie and Christiantown Indians $397; to the Dudley Indians
$756; to the Troy Indians $779; to the Natick Indians $80—a total of
$4937. Most of the expenditures were for the supply of the physical
wants of the Indians, but in the Mashpee district a missionary and
schools are maintained with good success.

War
Matters.—Private
letters received from the army on the Rappahannock speak of the soldiers
being ordered to provide ten days’ rations, which would seem to mean
something more than a reconnoissance.

Gen.
Halleck has issued an order, which may be regarded as retaliatory, that
no rebel officer shall be released until further notice.

Two
more of Gen. Banks’ transports are reported ashore on the Florida
coast—the ship Lucinda, with troops and horses on board, which was
subsequently got off, and the ship Sparkling Sea, with the 25th N. Y.
battery on board, which would probably be entirely wrecked. She went
ashore on Ajax Reef, near Carysfort light house. The troops were all
saved, and all the horses which had survived the passage.

The
following from the army of General Rosencrans, appears in the Chicago Tribune of Friday:

“The
army is gradually extending its lines in the direction of the enemy,
though no movement of importance will likely be made or some days.

“The
rebels are scouting round in every direction. Squads of their army
yesterday came within three miles of our lines.

“The
rebel Gen. Wheeler, with 2500 cavalry and three guns, is known to have
passed up to our left, within forty-eight hours. His declared object is
to capture and destroy our wagon trains.”

Gen.
Banks is looking after the levees protecting New Orleans. An order was
issued on the 7th as follows:

“All
planters and corporations within this parish, left bank, are hereby
notified that all needed repairs on the levee in front of their
plantations or corporate limits, must be commenced at once, and finished
within fifteen days from the date of this notice. The syndic of the
parish will see that this order is executed, and any parties failing to
comply with the same will be punished according to military law.”

The
United States gunboat Saginaw
reports the capture on the 5th inst., at Jupiter Inlet, Florida, of the
English sloop Avenger, of
Nassau, with an assorted cargo of salt, coffee, gin and dry goods; also
of the English sloop Julia, of
Nassau, on the 8th inst., with salt.

The
United States sloop Ariel
reports the capture of the sloop Good
Luck, on the 6th inst., off the Florida Capes, loaded with
turpentine and cotton.

——-

The
War of 1812.—It was
two years after the declaration before the war was prosecuted with
vigor. Then Jacob Brown and Andrew Jackson, and young Scott, with his
double regiment, appeared upon the field. Chippewa, Niagara and New
Orleans followed, and the war closed in glory. The navy signalized
itself against the bulwarks of Old England, and if it gets a chance,
will do it again. Such is democracy in war: weak in the beginning,
strong in the end. Be patient, then, and every cloud which lowers upon
our house, will disappear before the coming sun, unless God has decreed
our downfall.—Cor. New YorkTimes.

WEDNESDAYJANUARY 21, 1863THE
SPRINGFIELD REPUBLICAN (MA)

From
Charleston.A
Mutiny in Fort Sumter.

A
letter from Port Royal, December 30th, says the gunboat Marblehead,
from the blockade of Charleston, reports that six deserters from Fort
Sumter reached the Canandaigua
in a foggy night. They report that a third of the garrison in Fort
Sumter had avowed an intention of no longer fighting under the
confederate flag, whereupon nearly all the garrison threw down their
arms; that they were half-famished, and that their families were in
want, owing to non-payment for several months. An arrival of other
troops overawed the mutineers and forced them to return to their duties.
A large number of prominent ones, however, were in confinement, and
would possibly be shot. Their friends say if this is done they’ll
avenge their deaths. Dissatisfaction among the rebel troops is wide
spread throughout the department. The men worked day and night, are half
starved, receive no money and live under the iron rule of a despot.
Scarcely a day passes without desertions.

The
gunboat Wissahickon recently
drove the rebels out of a battery at Branch Island; presently they
returned with a party of cavalry, forcing them back to their guns. They
again opened fire, and the Wissahickon
received a shot in her hull which nearly sunk her. She came to Port
Royal for repairs.

——-

The
Potomac Flotilla.Capture
of a Rebel Coaster.

The
navy department has received dispatches from Com. Harwood, commanding
the Potomac flotilla, dated the 19th, stating that the Leslie
arrived at Hampton roads Sunday, with the schooner Hampton of Baltimore, in tow, which was captured by the Currituck
on the morning of the 13th, in Dividing Creek. The commodore states that
the vessel cleared light, ostensibly for the oyster trade, but took in
her cargo at Baltimore. She had on board several passengers, who, from
letters found on board, appeared to be persons who had been in the habit
of passing to and from Virginia. At the time of the capture of the Hampton,
a canoe at the same place escaped, but was afterwards taken at Indian
Creek—not, however, until her crew had escaped to the woods, and the
principal part of her cargo, it is supposed, had been thrown overboard.

Commodore
Harwood also reports that before these occurrences the Currituck
broke up for the present an establishment for supplying salt to
Richmond, by destroying the kettles used in its manufacture. It appears
from the report of Acting Master Linnekin, commanding the Currituck,
that when he arrived at Dividing Creek, he was informed by a Negro that
at Southwest branch there was a large manufactory of salt and a steam
mill owned by a man named Oscar Sealey, who had been extensively engaged
in supplying the rebels with salt. The commander of the Currituck
proceeded thither, sent a party on shore and destroyed all the kettles,
&c., with the exception of the boiler, and sent word to the
proprietor to discontinue the occupation under penalty of the complete
destruction of the mill and a large amount of lumber contiguous.
Dividing Creek is one of the points to which George N. Saunders advised
his correspondents to make shipments.

The
Negro to Fight on Both Sides.—Notwithstanding Jeff Davis’
well affected horror of “the most execrable measure recorded in the
history of guilty man,” there is good evidence that the rebels
themselves have been the first to use the Negroes as soldiers, and if
they dare trust them with arms they may yet have a larger black army
than the government. As yet they have only employed the Negroes as
artillerists. Negro slaves worked a portion of the batteries at
Vicksburg, by which our assailing columns were so savagely mown down,
and Negro slaves stand behind the batteries of Port Hudson, and yet the
rebel chief lifts his hands in holy horror and calls upon the civilized
world to go into spasms of moral indignation because the government
proposes to employ Negroes on the right side. As to the use of Negroes
in the southern forts, a recent letter from an officer of the Banks
expedition at Baton Rouge says:

“The
fortifications at Port Hudson are said to be very strong, the heavy
artillery guns of monstrous size, and are worked entirely by Negroes,
who, it is now fully admitted, make the best soldiers in the world for
heavy artillery service, being very muscular men. The sound of the
cannon does not affect their brain, and they can endure fatigue much
better than white men, and seem to be perfectly in their element while
working the heavy guns within the fortifications. Our own government are
beginning to realize this fact, and forts Jackson and St. Phillip are
now being manned by Negroes. There are about 3000 of them, thoroughly
drilled in ground movements as infantry, without arms, by Gen. Phelps,
who fully realized what he must come to in regard to employing Negroes
as soldiers. Gen. Butler could not comprehend this fact, and the result
was that Gen. Phelps resigned and went home. Gen. Butler changed
entirely his opinion, armed these very men that Gen. Phelps had trained
and disciplined, and it is fully admitted that we have no troops that
are under better discipline, and who take so good care of their arms or
better care of themselves. These are the very men who are now being sent
to Forts Jackson and elsewhere. I saw yesterday a company of some
seventy-five, who had been selected within the last eighteen days by
Gen. Sherman’s orderly, and were being drilled by him, and they really
showed great proficiency in company movements. This company is to be
filled up to its maximum, 156, and is to work the heavy guns on a
fortification.”

——-

From
Fortress Monroe.The
Vanderbilt Going After the Alabama Again.

A
Fortress Monroe letter of the 18th says the Vanderbilt
was being rapidly coaled and would leave in a day or two in search of
the Alabama. She left Fayal
December 31, leaving in port the American clipper ship Typhoon,
Capt. Saiter, from Calcutta for Cork, which had put in in distress. The Typhoon
arrived at Fayal December 24, having lost six of her men, including the
chief mate, by over exertion. The brig Newsboy
was also at Fayal. She was to leave on the 2d inst. for Boston.

THURSDAYJANUARY 22,
1863THE
VERMONT PHŒNIX

The
New Atlantic Telegraph.

On
the 5th inst., Cyrus W. Field arrived in this city by the steamer Asia from Europe, he having visited England for the purpose of
furthering measures respecting another effort to lay a new telegraphic
cable in the Atlantic. On the day before the Asia
sailed, a large meeting was held at Liverpool, presided over by Mr. Wm.
Brown; and Mr. Field explained the condition of the Atlantic Telegraph
Company and its prospects. Speeches, hopeful in tone, were also made by
Mr. Brown, Mr. Bushell and other gentlemen, and resolutions were adopted
expressing faith in the ultimate success of the undertaking and pledging
the meeting (individually and collectively) to do all in its power to
bring about that success. An extraordinary meeting of the Atlantic
Telegraph Company was held in London on the first week of December last,
at which the Hon. Stuart Wortley presided. He stated that the accidents
which had hitherto occurred to submarine cables had invariably taken
place in shallow water. There had not been a cent expended for repairs
upon any of the telegraphic lines that had been laid in deep water. The
whole of the new Atlantic cable, except the shore ends near the Irish
and Newfoundland coasts, would be in deep water, and little danger of
injury was to be apprehended, if a god cable was properly laid. Mr.
Wortley condemned the manner in which the first Atlantic cable was
constructed and laid. He said he was in possession of certain facts
which accounted satisfactorily for the failure of that cable. It was
illy constructed, hastily laid, and unfit to be laid down into the
bottom of the sea. The capital required for the next cable was £600,000
(about $3,000,000), and it was proposed to raise it by the issuing of
five pound shares. If the cable was successful, the British Government
would guarantee eight per cent to the shareholders. About one-sixth of
the capital required has already been subscribed, and it is believed the
whole amount will be raised before the month of May. It should not be
forgotten that President Lincoln in his message said: “I have favored
the project for connecting the United States with Europe by an Atlantic
telegraph, and a similar project to extend the telegraph from San
Francisco to connect by a Pacific telegraph with the wire which is being
extended to the Russian empire. Our continent is now belted with the
electric wire, and it is not too much to hope for, that a cable may be
laid in the Atlantic and another in the Pacific before this year closes,
thus encircling the globe with a telegraphic highway.”—Scientific American.

——-

A
Trojan Horse.—General Sumner dispatched twenty-five
dragoons on a foraging expedition to Falmouth. They had not proceeded
beyond our lines, when a guerrilla band captured both wagons and
teamsters. As soon as word came to headquarters of the division, General
Sumner ordered ten wagons to be filled with armed soldiers and to
proceed to the same place where the rebels had carried off their booty
and to lie concealed in the bottom of the wagons. The ruse was
successful. The guerrillas, some forty in number, came upon the party,
dismounted, and proceeded to capture, as they supposed, a fresh supply
of horses and wagons, when our soldiers concealed as in the Trojan
horse, came out and captured every rebel and horse, and soon returned to
camp with the enemy, and every prisoner, horse, and wagon which had a
few hours before been taken from us. The incident created quite an
amusing sensation.

The
Banks Expedition Transports.

The
report of the Select Committee of the Senate upon the chartering of vessels
for the Banks expedition finds that the sailing vessels belonging to the
expedition were of good quality, and were chartered at fair rates; but a
portion of the steamers were unsuited to the voyage on which they were
bound, and that the price for all of them, although not above usual
government rates, were larger than private parties would have paid.

The
unsuitableness of the vessels is explained by the circumstance that
Commodore Vanderbilt, who alone knew the destination of the expedition,
considered it his duty simply to find and hire transports, leaving the
inquiry as to seaworthiness to Commodore Van Brunt, who had no knowledge of
the destination. The largeness of the price is attributed, in a considerable
degree, to the vicious practice of employing middlemen between the agents of
the government and the shipowners, instead of leaving the market open to
competition.

The
Committee give considerable attention to the case of the Niagara,
and censure her owners severely. While not entirely exonerating Commodore
Vanderbilt from blame, they express confidence in his rectitude, but say
that T. G. Southard, employed as an assistant by Commodore Vanderbilt, and
agreeing to work like him, gratuitously, received commissions from the
owners varying from 5 to 6¼ per cent from the charter parties.

The
Committee reprehend this practice of receiving commissions severely, and
recommend that Southard be required to refund. The Committee censure the
Government for not availing itself of the law allowing naval officers to be
detailed for the purpose of inspecting transports in the service of the Navy
Department. Incidentally the Committee intimate that in the case of other
expeditions the Government is even more blameable.

——-

“Is
it not astonishing,” said a wealthy individual, “that a large fortune
was left me by a person who had only seen me once?” “It would have been
still more astonishing, “said a wag, “if he had left it to you after
seeing you twice.”

-----

Our
able representative in Congress, Mr. Morrill, is making an effort to get the
old hall of the House devoted to statuary. His proposition is, and he has
introduced a resolution to that effect, to authorize the president “to
invite each and all of the states to provide and furnish marble or bronze
statues, not exceeding two in number for each state, of men who have been
citizens thereof, illustrious from their historic renown, or from
distinguished civil or military services, such as each state shall determine
to be worthy of this national commemoration.”—Standard.

FRIDAYJANUARY 23,
1863THE
LIBERATOR (MA)

Pluck.

When
Richard Cobden visited this country the last time, he is reported to
have said, in speaking of our politics, “What the Republican party
lacks is pluck.” That sagacious observer never made a truer remark. When
the history of this war is written, that will be a most profitable
chapter which contrasts the striking characteristics of the two great
parties which illustrate the conflict. Perhaps no key will be found so
sure as this to unlock the mystery of the North’s ill success in
crushing the rebellion, spite of the immense physical and pecuniary
advantages preponderating in its favor.

Aside
from the points at issue between the Democratic and Republican parties,
(we speak of them in the past,) there was an inherent difference in
their natures. The Democratic party, whose guidance was always intrusted
to the South, and whose object was to gain by political means what the
traitors-in-arms hope to gain by bullets--the perpetuation and spread of
slavery--the Democratic party walked with a firm tread that shook the
continent. Never forgetting its hellish mission, unswerving in its
course, never consenting to compromise unless the profits of the bargain
were all its own, audacious, defiant, it stands typified as the
incarnation of relentless purpose. The sword of Nemesis was not quicker
or surer than its punishment to the Democrat who murmured at its fiat.
Wealth, talents, positions availed him nothing. If he dared to breathe
an anti-slavery word, political influence forsook him, and the doors of
office closed in his face. The Pope’s bull could not blast a heretic
more effectively.

Though
Democracy was peremptory with its enemies, it ever remembered and
rewarded its friends. To be sure, it never refused to use men of any
party whose servility rendered them pliant tools; but when was it known
to let them grasp the expected wages? When their usefulness to slavery
ceased, like Webster, they were cast contemptuously aside, to die broken
hearted, with the remorse of Wolsey troubling their last hours--“Had I
served my God with half the zeal that I have served Oppression, He would
not have given me over in my gray hairs.”

Mankind
like firmness and pluck. In spite of the wicked foundation upon which
Democracy stood, there was something attractive in its mien. Unthinking
men looked with such admiration upon its confident front, which always
wore the prestige of success, that they did not notice its fatal
footing.

The
picture of the Republican party is different. Founded upon a partial
justice, its purpose was a partial one. Compromise presided at its
birth. Its originators were men convinced of the interest of slavery,
yet lacking the faith to nail their convictions to the mast head.
Expediency, not principle, was its motto. Mazy and circumlocutory has
been its progress. Year after year, its platform was lowered and its
resolutions weakened to catch more voters. Its infirmity of purpose, and
its search for candidates whom availability ad not fidelity recommended,
lost it the respect of earnest men.

When
it achieved success, it squandered the fruits. Banks’ election as
Speaker of the house is an illustration. The Republicans boasted that he
gave the Democrats an equal, if not a better, share of the Committee
appointments than he did his friends. Such blundering folly was not
magnanimity, but weakness, and the Democrats, while gladly accepting the
gifts, despised the giver.

The
main part of the Democratic party nominated Breckenridge because of his
tested fidelity to slavery. The Republicans set aside their tried
leaders, ignored Sumner, Giddings, Hale, and Wade, and selected Abraham
Lincoln, because of his negative qualifications. He was neither
anti-slavery nor pro-slavery, hot nor cold.

No
question that he fitly represented the entire party, that he embodied in
his single person its virtues and failings. But to conquer a gigantic
rebellion whose leaders and armies fight with intensest earnestness,
there is wanting something more than Republican irresolution and
paltering.

Lincoln,
by his nature and education, is no equal for a man like Davis. When war
was inevitable, the latter bent himself to his work with Democratic
directness and celerity. He appointed no Republicangenerals to lead his armies, neither did he call the Border Free
State men to his councils. On the contrary, he made clean work--hung,
imprisoned and exiled whoever dared say a word for the Union. >

What
has Lincoln done to crush treason? Appointed men to control his armies
whose loyalty was not above suspicion--men whose hatred of Abolitionists
exceeded their hatred of traitors; sought advisers from States kept in
the Union only by the compulsion of Northern bayonets claiming loyalty,
yet with hearts yearning for Richmond; allowed the tribune and Evening
Post to be virtually excluded from the army, and Bennett’s treasonable
Herald to go everywhere; tolerated traitors in every department of the
government; counteracted every General who fought with anti-slavery
energy and thoroughness--the only energy and purpose that can grapple
successfully with the South; and, lastly, the Proclamation. With
fidelity to the old Republican tactics, he compromises. He frees the
slaves where our armies are unable to penetrate, and keeps them in
chains in the States where their immediate freedom would be of
incalculable benefit to our cause.

It
seems as though our day of probation is nearly past. The scepter which
Mr. Lincoln would use when he could, will soon be powerless. From New
Jersey and New York, from Indiana, Ohio and Illinois, treason, reassured
by a mistaken leniency, gathers head boldly. The whole horizon is
threatening. Extreme measures and extreme men alone can save us. The
apathy of the North is amazing, and people fear more the men whose
faithful and uncompromising advocacy of freedom and justice have gained
them the name of extremis,
than they do the extremist traitors.

Radical
is the word Mr. Lincoln! There is no escape from it. We gravitate to it
daily. Butler must go back to New Orleans, Fremont and Phelps must lead
your armies. It is time to drop Republican temporizing. “Canst thou
draw out leviathan with a hook?” Give us Democratic vigor and pluck.

——-

The
Alabama.—Intelligence has been received of the destruction
of another Boston vessel by the rebel privateer Alabama.
The schooner Union, from
Baltimore, arrived at Port Maria, Jamaica, Dec. 8, having on board Capt.
Fulton and crew (seven in all) of bark Parker
Cook, of and from Boston for Aux Cayes, captured and burnt on the
30th of November, in Mona Passage, by the Alabama.
The Alabama also captured the Union,
but, her cargo being owned by British subjects, she was allowed to
proceed after taking on the crew of the bark and giving bond for $1500
for the vessel. Capt. F. and crew were on board the Alabama
five days in irons, and during that time she was on the lookout for the
California steamers.

-----

All
the bodies of the Sioux Indians who were recently executed at Mankato,
Minn., have been resurrected by the doctors for scientific purposes.

-----

The
Boston Journal is printed on
paper made from wood, under a new arrangement made by its publishers,
and looks very handsomely.

-----

The
Young Men’s Christian Association at Chicago has followed the example
of the Board of Trade, and expelled that scurrilous secesh sheet, the
Chicago Times, from their
reading rooms. They have also voted to burn the last year’s file of
the paper, in one of the most public places in the city.

——-

Petitions
Against Negroes.—The Crisis
and other “Democratic” journals are urging the people who, like
them, are afraid of Negroes, to petition the Legislature to prohibit the
immigration of people of color into the State. They desire to procure a
very large number of names to memorials this winter. It is a great pity
that these politicians should feel themselves so low in the social scale
as to suppose it necessary to ask the protection of the Legislature
against the poor, illiterate and degraded Negro. It is proper, however,
that every man should be a judge of his own standing in society; and if
these men think they are likely to fall beneath the Negro in social
competition, it is very natural that they should ask for relief. But
would it not be just as well to ask for special protection for
themselves? As to the editor of the Crisis,
we think it is wholly unnecessary, as it is doubtful if there is a Negro
to be found sufficiently degraded to wish to edit such a paper as the Crisis.--Ashtabula Sentinel.

SATURDAYJANUARY 24, 1863THE
HALLOWELL GAZETTE (ME)

The
Movement of Gen. Burnside’s Army.

In
the special correspondence of the N. Y. Post
from Gen. Burnside’s headquarters, 17th inst., we find the following:

“The
various corps of this army are under orders to be ready to march to-day.
They are ready, but the order to march is still withheld. I do not think
it will be issued before Monday, though the weather cannot be more
favorable for moving than it is to-day, the wind of yesterday and the
cold of last night having dried and frozen the ground completely. We
have been on the alert for over a week, daily, expecting to be ordered
out on another advance. Little to know of the intended movement. General
and grand division headquarters do not vouchsafe subordinates many
particulars until the time arrives for their execution.”

The
correspondent says that the army, until now, has never been unanimous
regarding the President’s Emancipation Proclamation, but the message
of Jeff Davis has fairly turned the scale in its favor. His infamous
threat to turn over all captured commissioned officers of the Union army
to the rebel State Governments for treatment, according to their slave
laws, the writer states, while it excites ridicule for its impotency, at
the same time gives additional nerve to every arm that fights, and
strengthens the resolve of every man that this despotic, bloody and
causeless rebellion, with its
leaders, shallperish. If
the traitors want to increase the number of abolitionists in this army,
let them continue to rave and threaten to execute.

The
Washington correspondence of the same paper, in his letter of the 11th,
says:

“General
Burnside is concealing his movements from the newspaper men very
adroitly. That something important is going on no one denies, but
exactly what, is very properly concealed. The southern sympathizers with
the rebellion (and some of them are members of Congress) go about our
streets predicting utter failure. ‘The army is mutinous,” ‘the
army will not fight,” and the ‘army expects to be beaten, and will
be beaten,’ are some of their most popular phrases. This sort of talk
invites disorder and doubtless it is their object. There have been
movements of troops in and around Washington. A regiment of artillery
passed through the city yesterday, and troops have been pouring down as
if to reinforce Burnside, for several days.”

-----

The
first tomatoes ever seen in the N. E. States found their way from the
south to Newport. They were called “love apples” and considered
poisonous. During the year 1809 or 1810 a gentleman from South Carolina
spent that summer in Newport, and discovering the fruit in the garden of
his boarding house, asked the lady why she did not have any of her fine
tomatoes on the table. She was somewhat surprised to find by tomatoes he
meant her “love apples,” which were regarded as poisonous, and grew
them only as an ornamental plant. He directed her how to prepare them.
Since then they have been a common plant throughout New England.

——-

Gen.
Butler in one of his late speeches used the following forcible language
in justification of his treatment of persistent rebels at New Orleans:

“Sedition
is treason; treason is death, with forfeiture of goods; and all that is
inflicted on a rebel, short of this, is so much gained by him from the
clemency of the government.”

Loyal
words, fitly spoken, and we wish that every northern democrat would
manfully stand by their leader in the noble position he has taken in
favor of the speedy suppression of the wicked rebellion.

Ship
Building.

We
copy from the Bath Times the
following statistics giving an encouraging vie of the ship-building
interest in this District:

We
had a little curiosity to know how many vessels of the various kinds had
been built within the limits of this (Bath) district during the last
year. We had only to call at the Custom House and make our wishes known
when we were readily furnished with the facts and figures, and as they
may be of interest to our readers, as well as to us, we give them the
advantage of our Yankee propensity to ask questions. There is, probably,
no other District in the State where the tonnage of vessels built will
amount to half that of the Bath District, notwithstanding the prevailing
impression that business is exceedingly dull.

One
was built at Phipsburg, viz: bark Alice
Minott, 505 tons, by C. V. Minott.

Besides,
there are now on the stocks in this city some ten or twelve large
vessels, including a steamboat and gunboat.

In
the Passamaquoddy District, embracing Pembroke, Calais, Eastport,
Dennysville, Robinston and Lubec, the number of vessels built and
launched last year was twenty-two, of an aggregate tonnage of 6109.

In
the Portland District, embracing Portland, Cape Elizabeth, Falmouth,
Cumberland, Yarmouth, Freeport and the islands, the number of vessels
built and registered during the year 1862 was 17, and the aggregate
tonnage 7518.

——-

Latest.—Our
dispatches received Friday morning give rumors of a great battle being
fought on the Rappahannock--the rebels flanked by Sumner, Hooker
mortally wounded. These we give as rumors,
not as official from the army. Gen. Fitz John Porter has been found
guilty of the charges preferred against him, cashiered and dismissed
from the service. Burnside has issued a stirring order to his army,
stating that a decisive battle was about to be fought. It is dated on
the evening of the 20th.